


Snapshots of a Life Well Lived

by Ace_of_Spades_400



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Can you tell i have a favorite, Family, Klaus Stays in the Past, M/M, Time Travel, klaus deserves the world, the others become relevant later I swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-01-15 15:48:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21255830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ace_of_Spades_400/pseuds/Ace_of_Spades_400
Summary: One week into Vietnam and the briefcase is broken. Klaus is never going home.He's just going to have to make the most of his life here, now.





	1. Dear Diary

May 1968- Vietnam

Klaus stares at the smoking briefcase sitting on the ground in front of him, wondering why he’s not having a mental breakdown.

He’s been in the past- in the middle of a fucking war- for all of a week now. He’s seen three people he’d learned the names of die in front of him and then seen their ghosts scrambling after him. He’d slept on the floor with his back to the trees and listened to the distant sound of gunshots and explosions.

And now he’s stuck here. Forever.

His plan had been to get the hell out of the active fucking warzone- to a base camp or a cave or something- and then use his little ticket to hell and hope for a one-way trip home. But that wouldn’t work now, not with his only way out of this place, out of this time, creaking and groaning and smoking slowly into a small flame.

He’s not sure what happened. One minute he’s running from the firefight, the shouts of ‘get down’ and ‘cover me’ ringing in his ears, the soldier from the bus – Dave’s- hand on his elbow, pushing him forward, urging him on faster. He was clutching the briefcase in one hand, juggling the rifle they’d given him in the other. And then he’d fallen ass over tea kettle onto his face, heard an awful crunching noise as he’d fallen into a ravine that he had thought was bone and still wished it had been.

He was stuck here now. Forever.

Unless little Fivey found some way to come back and get him…

Yeah right. His siblings probably didn’t even know he was gone. Wouldn’t even know to come looking anywhere that wasn’t a drug den or a rave. 

He was never going back to his own time.  
He’s still surprised at himself for not panicking. All he feels is this grim acceptance, an exhausted understanding that he cannot change.

There are hands under his armpits suddenly, pulling, pushing all at once.

Dave, hissing loud over the gunshots still coming in behind them, “Come on Klaus! Keep going!”

Keep going.

Guess that’s all he can do now.

He leaves the briefcase on the jungle floor, takes Dave’s hand when offered, hauls up to his feet, and then runs.

No going back now.

+++++++++++++++

March 1969 – Vietnam

Klaus hadn’t quite expected to ever see the States again. He knew he’d never see his time sure, but he’d also kinda known that he likely wouldn’t survive this war.

Somebody should have told Dave that.

Dave who nearly tore his goddamn arm off lugging Klaus’ unconscious, bleeding body through miles of jungle mud to get him to a medic. Dave who was bleeding himself, arm screaming in protest from a gunshot that would have pierced his heart if he hadn’t turned at the last second. Dave who would spend the next week practically camped by Klaus’ hospital bed until the docs cleared them both for discharge.

Klaus was alive.

Down a limb but whose counting. (Dave is, Dave is worrying incessantly at the stump of flesh where his left leg had been, panicking and reeking of guilt)

Klaus doesn’t care. He hadn’t expected he’d make it this far, hadn’t expected their whispered conversations to be anything more than silly dreams.

But now they can be real.

He reaches up to take Dave’s hand from where it’s gripping his wheelchair handles white-knuckled.

“We’re going home.” He says, can’t keep the smile from overtaking his face.

Dave looks down at him, his own smile lighting up that gorgeous face. “Home. Just you and me baby.”

Klaus had never had a home before, not really. That mansion had certainly never counted. But now… here, out of time, maybe he could make one.

Dave squeezes his hand tight before continuing their trek to the plane.

He doesn’t know if this will last, he’s got a track record of ruining every good thing in his life after all. But he hopes, desperately, to have this for as long as he can, to cling to it as hard as he can. He loves Dave more than he’s ever loved anyone, anything.

He thinks, for the first time since he was a child, that everything might just be ok.

++++++++++++++

April 1970 – New York City

Klaus knows he has a problem, has always known, from the first moment he realized that drugs and alcohol dulled his powers at the ripe young age of twelve years old, he’d been aware that it was bad.

He knew it would kill him, slowly, that it would ruin his life and the tenuous relationships he had with his siblings but…

But the ghosts were so loud, so awful, so painful to look at. Anything was better than them, the numbness was better. 

Besides, it wasn’t like he had anything to live for back then. He had been alone in his misery- minus Ben’s ghostly figure which didn’t really count anyways- and so it had been ok. It had been fine because if he lost himself to this no one would notice, no one would care.

But now he has Dave.

Dave who understands how painful Klaus’ powers are, how much he hates and fears it. Dave who used to stockpile his cigarettes for Klaus in the war, who gave half his canteen of hard alcohol to Klaus on the long nights in the mud. Dave who always put his hand on his shoulder, pushing him forward and pulling him back, pressing kisses to his ear and asking if he’s ok, if he needs anything, needs help.

Klaus has never been ashamed to admit he needs help to Dave.

They’ve been living together in the city for just over a year, scraping and saving whatever they can for that future they’d dreamed of. Klaus doesn’t have Daddy Dearest’s money to steal now, and he’s never been good at saving.

But he’s trying. He’s working now, got a job at the corner diner waiting tables, chatting with customers, bringing leftovers home for Dave. They don’t seem to mind that he’s down a leg, kinda crazy, and very obviously queer, just that he’s friendly and fast and he can balance more trays on his lap.

Dave is working construction, building up shop fronts and apartment buildings that Klaus recognizes from his time. Helping little old ladies mow their lawns on weekends for some extra cash.

They’re saving every spare penny, waiting and hopeful, for the future they always dreamed of.

Except for the drugs. Klaus knows he can’t keep going on like this, can’t waste their money on drugs- easier and cheaper than his time but still, so much- can’t have the future they want if he’s high.

Farm, dog, cat, kids.

Dave holds his hand as they empty out all his stashes around the apartment. Holds him close each night as he shakes from withdrawal. Stops by work when his shift is over to wheel Klaus home so he doesn’t go looking in alleys for dealers.

It’s not easy, but Klaus’ life has never been easy.

Klaus thinks of Ben and all his desperate pleas. Of Dave and his hopeful grins.

Klaus is a stubborn bastard in the end, he’ll do this.

Hopefully.

++++++++++++++

October 1971 – New York City

Klaus sits on the floor in the corner of the living room, hands slammed over his ears as the screams ring out around him.

There’s so many of them, they’re everywhere, crowding around his apartment and screaming and crying and yelling and bleeding.

Klaus had fallen out of his chair in his rush to get away from them, had crawled his way across the floor to put his back to the wall. 

Now he shakes, whimpers, tries very hard not to scream back at them.

Dave…. He wants Dave…

But Dave is down the street, helping old Granny Cougar set up her house for the big Halloween party tonight, likely getting fondled by the old woman who never seemed to know the meaning of personal space.

He’s not here to save Klaus from his ghosts. Likely wouldn’t be able to anyways. 

There’s so many, too many. 

“Klaus!” they scream, “Klaus! Help us!”

He can’t. He can’t. He can’t.

He can’t even help himself.

He squeezes his eyes shut tighter until his head starts to hurt, pressing his palms harder over his ears until it feels like his fingernails might draw blood.

Someone….please…. help him….

“It’s ok…” someone whispers, quiet, at the same time someone else yells “SHUT UP!”

Now that voice is familiar.

Klaus peeks open one eye to see Jameson Jones, commanding officer of their troop standing, hands on hips, between Klaus and the ghosts.

On either side of him Sammy ‘Hangnail’ Murphy and Bennet ‘Warts’ Smith are grinning, gap-toothed and full of holes.

Jameson looks down at Klaus and raises the one remaining eyebrow, the other melted off his face by the explosion, “Well Hargreeves, what are you waiting for?”

Klaus opens and closes his mouth, at a loss, “What?”

Hangnail flails one broken arm with a huff, “This is your power Spook.”

Warts- his warts blown off- gestures to the mass of ghosts, “You control it don’t you?”

Jameson looks back to the ghosts, still standing strong, “We’ve got your back Hargreeves. Don’t worry about anything else.”

Warts and Hangnail stand, and the three of them are there, a barrier between Klaus and the screaming ghosts.

He closes his eyes again, breathes deeply, focuses on the way Hangnail is humming terribly out of tune and Warts is tapping his foot impatiently and Jameson is bellowing for everyone else to shut up.

Just like old times.

His hands feel cold, almost burning, and when he opens his eyes suddenly they’re glowing blue.

He watches as a wave of power shoots out of him, through the ghosts and they all waver like smoke and disappear.

The soldiers laugh.

“Nice one Spook!” Warts cheer, before fading away. Hangnail shoots him a mangled thumbs up before following.

Jameson smiles at him, just as rare a feat as it was in life but no less rewarding with half his face gone, “You’ve got this Hargreeves.” And then he’s gone too.

Klaus lets out a shaky, hysterical laugh, then falls immediately unconscious.

Who knew he had it in him?

+++++++++++++

May 1972 – New York City

The day is bright and warm, the sun peering down through the trees and lighting the park in gentle shades of yellow. 

There are families having picnics in the distance but this one little corner is theirs, sequestered off by a chain-link fence of friends ready to keep them safe.

The grass is covered in confetti and a dozen different color folding chairs from a dozen different people’s spare closets. Everyone dressed to the nines and then stripped of their jackets due to the heat.

There are smiling faces and tears, hands clasped tight and whispered prayers throughout the crowd.

Four years to the day ago a briefcase dropped Klaus Hargreeves- homeless, drug addict, miserable- into a war before his time.

And now Klaus Katz slips a silver band onto Dave’s finger and watches a matching one slip onto his own.

There is no priest, no paperwork, no church. This is a ceremony for show, for their friends who accept and love them, and who would in a heartbeat fight for them. Of soldiers they fought with- dead and alive- and Queens Klaus danced with and fellow queers.

“I love you.” Dave says, tears streaming down his cheeks and smile so wide his face might split apart.

Klaus beams back, sobbing and laughing all at once.

Ben is not there, by his side, there is no Best Man’s speech full of childhood stories and love. Diego is not there to warn Dave about taking care of Klaus. Allison is not there to compliment his dress. Vanya is not there to play their first dance song. Luther is not there to give him away.

But all of that is a distant thing, a sadness that cannot topple the overwhelming joy of this singular moment.

“I love you.” He answers his husband, and Dave kneels in the grass so that Klaus can pull him into their first married kiss.

January 1977 – Woodstock, NY

Klaus groans dramatically as he hoists himself out of his wheelchair and flings himself to flop face-first onto the mattress laying on the floor.

“I can’t feel my arms!” he complains, wishing he’d thought to get the blankets out so he could roll up dramatically into a burrito

Dave snorts as he sets the final box down on the floor with all the others, “Almost done sweetheart. Just gotta unpack.”

Klaus groans again. Who knew moving would take so much effort?

Dave did, actually, which was why he’d asked half their squad for help in getting most of their furniture in. Klaus can hear Tyler in the living room now, arguing over the placement of the couch.

(He can also hear Jameson insulting everyone, but that’s only for him. Maybe later he’d manifest the man, just to hear Tyler shit himself.)

There’s still a lot to be done, a lot to be unpacked. They needed to let Callie out of her carrier before she got so cranky she started biting and scratching. They needed to fix that creaky front door. They needed to buy a goddamn dining room table because someone dropped theirs off the truck.

Dave drops down on the mattress beside him, scooting up close and pressing his lips to the back of Klaus’ neck.

“Why don’t you let me finish in here and you go take care of the nursery?” he suggests, and just thinking about it makes a smile bloom on both their faces.

Their good friend Ella- a lovely lesbian goddess who had a striking resemblance to Dave- had agreed to be their surrogate, and in just a few months they’d be bringing home their very own bundle of joy.

Their family, just like they’d dreamed of.

He rolls around in his husband’s arms to press a kiss to Dave’s chin.

“Well, what are you waiting for Mr. Katz? We have work to do.”

Dave shakes his head with a laugh, “Of course Mr. Katz. I’ll get right to it.” He leans up for one last kiss before he goes back to join the boys down the hall, and Klaus listens to him for a moment, “Goddamit Jaime! Watch the fucking window!”

Klaus gets himself back into his chair and goes to the nursery, in the room next door, furniture waiting to be put together and decorations waiting to be hung.

Their baby, happy and loved like Klaus never was.

A family, like Klaus never had.

It’s going to be perfect.

He’ll make sure of it.

+++++++++++++++

April 1978 – Woodstock, NY

Klaus is just about to bounce out of his chair with excited nerves. 

His heart is so full it feels like he may burst.

He watches, eyes wide and teary, as Dave holds their little girl to his chest and rocks her.

Ella, laying back in her hospital bed groans, “God I need a shot. Klausie, you owe me big time for that little monster.”

Klaus hisses at her, “She is an angel! Our little angel…”

Dave kneels carefully next to Klaus, tilts his arms just right so that he can get a view of her, her little face scrunched up. 

She’s perfect.

“Say hi to poppy.” Dave says quietly, shifting her over into Klaus’ waiting arms.

He cradles her close, touches one finger to her soft little cheek, “Hi sweetheart…. Hi… Poppy’s got you now, everything’s gonna be ok.”

They’d talked about names for months, about rock stars and siblings and brothers in arms who all deserved a namesake.

Dave puts on hand on Klaus’ shoulder and the other over top of Klaus’ on their daughter’s side.

“Hi Vanessa.” He says, voice cracking, tears streaming down his cheeks

Klaus smiles, “Vanessa Dianna Katz. The most beautiful girl in the world.” 

A sister and a brother he would never see again, but that was fine. Maybe when she’s older she’ll meet her namesakes, maybe she’ll tell them about her poppy and her dad, about their farm and their chickens and their cat. Maybe she’d tell them he was happy, finally, sober and loved and happy.

But right now Vanessa looks up at them with her big eyes, looking around at the world with so much curiosity.

Klaus had never expected to love anything more than he loved Dave. But now….

He would die for this little girl, would kill for her. Would face every screaming ghost of his childhood in that awful mausoleum just to keep her happy and safe.

Dave leans in to kiss Klaus’ forehead, and then Vanessa’s. “Let’s go home.” He whispers

Klaus finally lets the tears fall, laughing in joy, “Yeah, home.”

+++++++++++++

August 1983, Woodstock NY

“Poppy!” Vanessa’s shriek rings through the house before the thunder of her little feet down the stairs.

Klaus idly looks up from where he’s attempting to wrangle Benji into his shoes and raises one eyebrow as his daughter barrels into the living room, face livid. At least for a five-year-old.

“Titus ate my lip-gloss!” she whines, holding up a half-chewed tube of bright pink gloss.

Titus the great Dane slinks into the room, hunched down and practically crawling as he tries and fails to hide his massive body under the coffee table.

Benji cheers, “Titus! Titus! Titus!” and holds out one of his shoes in offering.

Klaus quickly takes the shoe back and shoves it onto the two-year-old’s foot.

“I told you not to leave your things on the floor sweetheart.” He reminds her, knowing without ever having gone upstairs to see her room that it’s a mess.

She pouts, “It wasn’t on the floor!” she lies, the curly mass of her dark hair flying about as she shakes her head rapidly.

Dave steps into the room, depositing Callie- the cat- onto the couch, “She was in the barn. What did we say about leaving the door open Nessie?”

Her pout somehow gets even bigger, “I didn’t!”

Klaus rolls his eyes and looks back to Benji, who has already managed to get his shoes off again. He groans, “Baby please. You need to wear shoes if we’re gonna go to the fair.”

“No.” the toddler huffs, crossing his pudgy little arms over his chest in defiance, “No like.”

“Daddy! Daddy!” Vanessa is complaining to Dave, pulling at his pant leg, “Look! Titus ate it!” she holds up her gloss tube.

Dave looks up at Klaus, a smile pulling at his lips, “Switch?”

“Yes!” he lifts Benji up easily and Dave steps over to take him, hoisting him up onto one hip and picking Vanessa up onehanded to deposit her in Klaus’ lap.

“Benjamin Jameson, you know the rules.” Dave says, and Benji whines

“Daddy!” But doesn’t complain when Dave starts putting the shoes back on his feet.

“Poppy my lip gloss!” 

“Yes I know sweet heart. I’m very sorry about your lip gloss. Would you like to borrow some of mine?”

“Yes! Yes yes yes yes!” she cheers, bouncing excitedly, “Can I wear the purple one! No the red! No pink!”

“Let’s go see what we have.” He settles her more firmly in his lap and then starts to maneuver their way around the living room towards his bathroom. Vanessa cheers the whole way.

He looks over his shoulder at Dave, whose trying to coax Titus’s top half out of the coffee table while simultaneously trying to keep Benji from pulling on Callie’s ears.

He smiles, heart feeling full, then continues on to get his daughter the perfect color of lip gloss to match her outfit.


	2. The things you want to remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy Days are here at last. Snapshots from the life of a lovesick family man.

October 1, 1990 Woodstock, NY

Klaus blinks open his eyes to the late morning sunlight streaming through the curtains and giggling out in the hall.

He reaches over for Dave’s side of the bed and finds it cold, long empty, but he can hear his husband just outside the door, whispering too quietly to make out the words.

“Shhhhhh!” Benji hisses loudly, “We gotta be quiet if we’re gonna surprise Poppy!”

Klaus smiles and rolls back onto his side to pretend to be asleep.

Two minutes of agonizing anticipation later the bedroom door finally opens and the excited patter of sprinting feet warns Klaus to brace for impact.

“Poppy! Happy Birthday!” Benji screeches full volume into his face the second he lands on Klaus’ chest.

Vanessa balances a tray piled high with waffles, eggs, bacon and glasses of orange juice as she starts into a startlingly loud rendition of Happy Birthday, which her little brother happily joins in on.

Dave helps her set the tray on the nightstand before leaning down to give Klaus a quick peck, “Good morning sunshine. Happy birthday.”

Klaus smiles, “Happy birthday to me.” And leans up just a little bit more to kiss his husband again.

Vanessa and Benji groan. “Ewwwww.”

“Suck it up kids! It’s my special day which means I get to kiss Dad as much as I want.” He punctuates this with another kiss.

Vanessa pretends to throw up while Benji gags.

Dave chuckles, shaking his head, “Stop traumatizing the kids. Let’s eat.” He starts fiddling with the tray while the kids eagerly climb into the big bed to join him.

“What are we gonna do today?” Benji asks, “Cause I think we should go to the park.”

“Oh a picnic! Let’s do a picnic! Can we dads?”

Dave looks down to Klaus, whose attention has zeroed in calendar on the wall, expression distant.

“Did you two wash your hands yet?” They both stare guiltily back at him, “Why don’t you go wash up while Poppy and I get breakfast dished up.”

They jump up and run for the bathroom, shoving each other all the way.

Klaus doesn’t take his eyes away from the date on the wall.

“It’s today.” He says quietly, and Dave takes his hand and squeezes it tight.

Tomorrow’s headlines will all be about this, about 43 children born under mysterious circumstances. By the end of the week Reginald Hargreeves will have bought seven of them and will not name a single one of them. Will not love them.

Last night he and Dave had argued for over an hour about this, about going to that house and burning it down. About killing that man. About saving the seven little infants who did not deserve the life they were about to be handed, the abuse and the torture and the trauma. In the end they’d held each other as they fell asleep, because they knew they couldn’t do anything.

As a child Klaus would have given anything to have someone save him from his childhood. But he cannot give up this life he has now. Cannot give up his husband and his kids, and his farm. The dog and the cat and the chickens and the creaky front door. The misshapen flowerpot on the windowsill in the kitchen. The stain on the carpet in the corner that just wouldn’t go away.

This is his life, and he’s happy, so happy.

He hopes his younger self can forgive him for being so selfish.

Benji and Vanessa come back into the room, squabbling over who gets more bacon- Vanessa because she’s older or Benji because he’s cuter.

Klaus smiles, blinks away tears for pain he knows he can’t stop, and sits up straighter in bed, “I think a picnic sounds great.”

They cheer, and Dave kisses him on the forehead, and Klaus turns his attention to his birthday breakfast.

Best not to think about the past and the future and how they work together. Best to just focus on right now.

And the right now is great.

++

August 1996, New York, New York

Klaus is not going to cry. He is not going to cry. He is…. Fuck.

Dave is already crying, hugging Vanessa so tight Klaus is pretty sure he can hear her bones creaking.

“Dad.” She whines, “Seriously I’m only an hour away. You’re acting like I’m not going to be home every weekend so you can cook for me.”

“You better be home every weekend.” Dave sniffles as he finally lets her go and turns to tidying up her desk to busy himself

Benji stuffs his hands in his pockets, pouting, “Whatever. I’m glad you’re finally out of the house buttface, now the upstairs is mine.”

“Nice try fartknocker, you touch my room I will kill you.” And then she pulls him into a hug, Benji burying his face in her neck and shaking.

He hasn’t had his growth spurt yet, not like Vanessa, who’s gotten as tall and spindly as Klaus is. Benji will likely never outgrow her, not with Dave’s genes making him grow more outward than upward, but he’ll still be pretty tall one day. But right now he fits neatly into his big sister’s arms, head tucked up under her chin.

Fuck. Goddamnit. Shit.

“Poppy…” Vanessa says softly, eyes watering, “Don’t you start. If you start then…”

Klaus sniffles, holding out his arms, “Oh get in here you little brat.” Vanessa sits in his lap like she did when she was small, arms wrapped around his neck and face pressed into his shoulder. Only now she’s too big for this, and her feet hit the wheel of his chair and send him spinning sideways. He doesn’t care, just wraps his arms around her tighter and cries into her hair. “I’m gonna miss you babygirl.”

She whines, “Stop acting like I’m leaving forever. It’s just college.”

“Yeah but now you’re not gonna be home anymore. Who am I gonna watch Friends with? Whose gonna help me make fun of dad when he tries to sing?”

“I can help with that one!” Benji volunteers, and Dave lightly smacks him on the back of the head

“I’ll come home for the season finale. Promise.”

“Good. I love you Nessie, so much. And I’m so proud of you.”

Art school, like he’d dreamed of once upon a time, before drugs became his whole world. And now here was his girl, high school graduate and college student, growing up before his very eyes.

“I love you too Poppy.”

Klaus holds her tighter, and revels in the warmth of his happiness, of his pride, of his family.

“Can we get pizza while we’re here?”

“Ben!” Dave hisses

Klaus laughs, wiping at his eyes, and dreads when Benji goes off to school in three years. 

He’s going to be a wreck.

+++++++++++  
October 1999, Woodstock, NY

Dave is puttering around the kitchen, clearly upset, but Klaus has resolved not to bother him until he can get his own tears under control.

Their first Halloween without the kiddos…. He never knew the house could be so quiet. So empty and cold.

Dave is setting out the pumpkins they carved earlier, trying to find where they put the matches while Klaus cleans up the pumpkin guts from where they’d splattered across the table.

“Ah! No sir.” He warns Titus as the big dog edges his snout closer to the edge of the table for a lick, “Shoo, go. Outside.” He ducks his head and pads away, likely finding wherever Callie is hiding if her angry hiss is anything to by.

“Four?” Someone says softly behind him, and Klaus drops the pumpkin guts to the floor

“Christ on a Fucking Cracker!”

“Language!” Dave calls from the front porch, and then gives a very sad sigh as he likely realizes that there aren’t any kids he can protect from Klaus’ absolutely foul mouth.

Klaus doesn’t focus on that. Instead he focuses on what’s behind him.

There’s a woman standing in their kitchen, her neck twisted at an awful angle, head perpetually tilted to the side at nearly 90 degrees. She’s wearing a plain black and white dress, like a maid’s uniform, and Klaus recognizes it instantly.

It’s the same one all their childhood nannies had worn, the one mom had worn up until they were seven and she finally got new clothes.

“Four? Is that really you?” she asks softly, and Klaus tries, he really does, to remember her name. But they’d had a revolving door of nannies up until mom came around, especially that last year.

“Who are you?” he asks her, trying not to look at the way the bones in her neck are protruding from her skin.

“Emily…. Emily Jacobs….”

Nanny Emily. She’s been the last one before mom. She spent most of her time with Vanya or Luther, and she’d never let Klaus sleep in Ben’s room.

Klaus doesn’t remember what happened to her, just that one day she was there and the next she wasn’t, no explanation, just like all the others before her. But she’s still wearing the uniform, which seriously implies she must have died in that house.

(Did he ever see her as a child? He can’t remember. Was she there? Was she wailing in some corner like all the others, begging for him to help her?)

“Why are you here?” he asks, knows to keep talking, keep her talking, keep her sane longer before she loses herself.

His younger self is six now, she’s been dead just under two years. Why now? Why here?

She looks around slowly, eyes wide, has to turn her whole body because her neck won’t turn.

“I don’t know… I was in that house, with you… a younger you….I couldn’t feel anything but cold…. Fear… pain… and then I felt you, this you. Pulling me. Calling. So I came.”

Well that answers a few questions. She was in his childhood, screaming, but now that he’s in the past she’s followed the beacon the dead always follow.

“How’d you die?” he asks patiently, tries to be kind about it.

He has a pretty good guess. Luther’s still pretty strong, even as a little kid, and that neck sure as hell looked like super strength.

“Number Seven.” She says and Klaus feels his jaw drop open and something in his chest freeze, “She lost control of her powers.”

Vanya doesn’t have powers.

“Vanya doesn’t have powers.” He says

She stares at him, “Who?”

“Va-Seven. She doesn’t have powers.”

Emily nods. It looks awful with her neck like that. “Oh no, Master Reginald says she’s the most powerful of all of you.”

Suddenly a memory flashes in Klaus’ mind, a fog clearing, and he sees their younger selves, barely four, running around the living room.

Five is teleporting clumsily, giggling and One is picking up Three and Six both. He is watching all of this with Two, who is trying very hard to curve a paper airplane into the forehead of the portrait across the room. And Seven is standing in the center of the room, bright and laughing, wind swirling haphazardly around her and things levitating.

And then he sees Vanya, quiet, small, being led out of the basement. Sees Allison, confused, tired, rubbing her eyes, with Dad’s hand on her shoulder. All of them standing in the front hall watching mom lead Vanya upstairs.

“I heard a rumor, that you thought Vanya was ordinary.”

Klaus gasps, feels like he’s going to be sick.

Dave runs into the room when Klaus wheels quickly backwards and rams into the wall.

Emily is still staring at him, neck still twisted, broken. Because Vanya killed her. Because Vanya had powers. Because Vanya….

“Sweetheart? Klaus baby are you ok?” Dave is kneeling in front of him, hand on his shoulders, warm and solid and grounding.

Klaus pushes a wave of energy outwards, a pulsing blue light that sends Emily vanishing into the great beyond.

Klaus breathes deeply, laughs just a little bit hysterically.

“So… I think I know how Five’s apocalypse is gonna happen.”

+++++++++

December 24, 2001 Woodstock, NY

“Baby! Where’d you put the candles!” Klaus screams as he bangs open cabinets and drawers

“Desk Shelf!” Dave yells back, a thud followed by a curse followed by yelp, “Molly no! Bad! Molly drop it!”

Molly the golden retriever comes bounding into the kitchen with Dave’s left shoe in her mouth.

Klaus glares up at the shelf the candles are on, debating if he should wait for Dave to stop fighting with the dog or if he can balance long enough to grab them.

“I got you Poppy.” Benji says, easily sidestepping Klaus and reaching up to effortlessly grab the box, “Here.”

“Thank you my sweet darling angel baby.” He takes the candles and then heads for the dining room table.

Benji, who is much better at thinking ahead, goes ahead and grabs the matches before Klaus even has to ask, “So, candles? Since when did we get all fancy for Christmas Eve?”

Klaus sticks his tongue between his teeth as he attempts to balance the candles in their holders, fussing with the tablecloth and the place settings while Benji lights everything up.

“Your sister-“ He stops to straighten the centerpiece he’d made three years back of a very lopsided clay snowman- “Is bringing someone over.”

Benji’s eyebrows shoot up to his curly hairline, “Wait really? Ness? Miss ‘Love is for suckers’? Why am I the last to know?”

“She called last night to tell us.” Klaus looks up at his son, his good leg bouncing anxiously, “Apparently they’ve been going on about six months now. And I want you to be nice.” Benji opens his mouth, “Nice!”

Benji groans, rolling his eyes, “Fine, yeah whatever. Is there anything else you need me to do Poppy Dearest?” he bats his eyelashes

Klaus snorts. “Nice try kiddo. No presents till tomorrow. And why don’t you go help your dad. I think he’s losing to Molly.”

They both pause to listen to the sound of Dave absolutely losing a tug-of-war match to the dog.

Benji snorts, “Sure things Pops.” He leans down to kiss Klaus on the head, “Holler if you need me. Don’t burn down the kitchen.”

Klaus screeches, “That was one time!” but does take great care when pulling his casserole out of the oven.

Seriously, you burn one meatloaf when the kids are in middle school and start a small fire and they never let you live it down.

The doorbell rings, and Klaus screams, “She’s here!” and barrels as fast he can down the hallway, hitting his hand on three end tables and the door jamb on his way but it’s worth it to be the first one to the door.

He flings it open to find his daughter having a hushed argument with a short, nervous looking man who seems about three seconds away from passing out.

Klaus finds himself grinning as he looks him over. He’s a good foot shorter than Vanessa- which isn’t saying too much as she got Klaus’ lanky height plus his penchant for heels- and built like a tank, all wide shoulders and beefy arms. He’s darker than Vanessa, Hispanic Klaus thinks, but can’t be sure. His hair is a messy mop of black on top of his head with a glittery butterfly hairpin near his nape that he doesn’t seem to notice. 

“Sir!” he squeaks, “I’m Michael. It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

Klaus grins up at his daughter who glares at him in warning. “Please, call me Poppy! We’re practically family now afterall! Now come on, I already got all of Nessie’s baby pictures out.” He wheels back out of the doorway, gesturing for them to follow.

“Poppy!” Vanessa hisses at the same time Dave and Benji hurry into the front hall.

“Nessie!” Dave holds open his arms and Vanessa instantly slots herself into them, hugging him tight.

Klaus can hear her quiet, “Control Poppy.” He’s disabled not deaf. “Dad, Ben, this is Mickey, my boyfriend.”

“Boyfriend huh?” Benji smirks, all teeth, and Vanessa elbows him before drawing him into a hug that is more chokehold than anything else.

“Be nice twerp.” She warns him

“Nes has told me so much about you all.” Mickey says, shifting nervously from foot to foot. 

Dave smiles warmly, clapping one big hand on the kid’s shoulders, “Relax Mick. Come on in, dinner should be ready soon.” 

Mickey and Dave head for the kitchen, Benji trailing behind and eying their guest curiously.

Klaus looks to his daughter and grins, “So, boyfriend huh?”

She flushes, lips puffing up in a pout, “I don’t want to hear it. Especially from you.”

Klaus snickers, “He’s cute, I like him. I missed you baby girl.”

“I missed you too Poppy.” She leans down to hug him tight, kissing his forehead

“Now, I was not at all lying about those baby pictures. Oh Mickey!” he sings as he wheels around and hurries towards the kitchen.

Vanessa screeches behind him and bolts for the living room.

Psh. As if Klaus had left the photo albums just sitting there.

++

May 15, 2003 Woodstock, NY

Klaus bites his thumbnail until it bleeds, good leg bouncing anxiously up and down up and down.

The couch feels too soft, too comfortable, too much right now. But Dave took his chair to keep him from pacing- or trying to get to the car to drive to the city.

He watches the clock, listening to the distant sound of Dave in the backyard arguing with the chickens.

11 am. 11:15. 11:22. Ticking ever closer and closer to noon.

He knows what happens.

At exactly 12 they will all stand behind their chairs while the bastard puts on some stupid educational record. Then they will finally sit to eat quietly, no talking, no fidgeting, no looking at each other.

It’s been too long for Klaus to remember what happened next, too many drugs too early in his life.

His memories are all hazy, built around the routine he can’t forget.

But he knows they hadn’t been eating all that long when Five finally slammed his utensils down and stood.

He doesn’t remember the argument as anything other than ‘Time Travel yay or nay?’

Daddy dearest had been a pretty resounding nay.

He remembers laughing to himself when Five had stormed off, and he’s pretty sure he spent the night in the mausoleum because of it.

He had thought Five would be there for breakfast.

He wasn’t.

Five hadn’t returned for lunch or dinner that day. Or the next, or the next, or the next for the next four years.

And after that it hadn’t mattered because Ben was dead and everyone was leaving. Klaus was living on the streets, selling whatever he could for just a moment of peace, and he hadn’t worried about Five anymore than a passing sober thought wondering if he’d see his brother’s ghost one day.

Klaus knows that from this moment, staring at the clock, that it will be seventeen years until the younger him sees Five again. And even then they will only have a handful of scattered moments over a stressful few days.

He doesn’t know everything about what Five has been though- having been too high and too tired to listen to the ramblings of a mad man- but he remembers bits and pieces.

An apocalypse with no survivors, burying his siblings bodies, decades growing in a wasteland all alone, starving and dying slowly. The Commission, and though Five had never told him what he’d done, after his stint with Hazel and Cha-Cha Klaus can make a pretty good guess.

His oldest/littlest brother is going to have a hard life ahead of him. A life Klaus can’t change, can’t save him from, no matter how much he wants to.

Dave comes in from the backyard, setting down the eggs before coming to kneel on the floor, cupping Klaus’ face in both of his big strong hands.

“Hey baby… It’s happened.”

It’s 1:17 pm. Lunch has been over for two minutes. They should be on to the afternoon studies with Pogo.

Five is gone.

Klaus didn’t save him.

“Am I doing the right thing?” he asks his husband, rubbing his hands up and down his thighs. “Not changing anything? We could make everything better….”

Dave just smiles sadly, doesn’t say anything.

Klaus knows. It was his idea. Dave had been all for ‘Operation Kill Daddy’. Had been ready to gather up the boys and raid the Academy and rescue his siblings the day they’d all been bought.

Klaus had been the one to insist they couldn’t change anything. Had begged his husband to stay, to let things be, to keep Klaus himself from changing his mind.

Because he knows. He does. That if a single thing in his life was changed he would not be here, now, with Dave. And he wouldn’t change the trauma and the heartache and the pain and the ghosts for him, for this.

“I love you.” He says, tries to keep the tears from falling

“I love you too sunshine.” Dave whispers and kisses him gently.

Klaus tries not to think about Five and the future that awaits him.

Instead he holds onto the love of his life as Dave picks him up and carries him to the bedroom.

++

September 17, 2006 Woodstock, NY

Klaus speeds down the hallway, not even bothering to maneuver around the hordes of people and instead just ramming forward and letting them decide to either move or be bowled over.

He is a father on a mission and nothing is getting in his way.

He careens dangerously around a corner, one wheel going airborne for a second before he rights himself and hurries into the room.

His breath catches in his throat despite expecting this. He had been there the first time, helping her try it on but this, now…

Seeing his little baby girl in her wedding dress is too much for him.

“Poppy!” Vanessa shrieks, face pinched likes it is whenever she’s near tears. But he knows- because she’s his daughter- that she won’t cry, not with the amount of makeup she has on right now. 

“It’s ok babygirl.” He soothes, aware out of the corner of his eyes as the bridesmaids and the Maid of Honor- Tammi, an absolute firecracker of a woman- scurry to get the rest of the things together now that the bride is being handled. “Everything is just fine.”

“But… But Lauren said-“

“Forget Lauren. Benji is handling everything.” He assures, “Mickey is all dressed up and ready to go. The flower girls are ready. The musician is in place. We found the caterer and he is setting up the reception right now. And your daddy is already crying so we’re ahead of schedule on that one.” 

That earns him a huff of laughter, and the tension in her shoulders eases just a little, bit by bit. 

“Ok…Ok. I can do this. I’m ready. I….”

Klaus takes her hand and squeezes, “You’re ready.”

She smiles, puffing out her chest and squaring her shoulders. She picks up her bouquet and clutches it like a weapon as she lets Klaus lead her out into the hallway and towards the wide double doors of the chapel.

He remembers Vanessa in high school, scoffing at her peers for dating. Rolling her eyes at sappy movies and gagging whenever she caught him and Dave kissing around the house.

He remembers her in college, insisting dating was stupid and love was stupider. Insisting she didn’t want anyone ever.

Klaus would have been fine with that, if she hadn’t. He has the vocabulary for it that other people of this time don’t, and if his little girl had been asexual- like Benji confessed to them at Christmas two years back- he would have been happy as long as she was happy.

But now, watching her smile spread across her face and her eyes light up when she catches sight of Mickey at the end of the aisle, Klaus is so glad.

He holds her hand tight as he walks her down the aisle.

Benji follows behind them, holding the train of her dress in one hand and pushing Klaus with the other. Dave sits in the front row, happily bawling.

Mickey weeps openly, smiling wide enough to split his face apart. His army of little siblings cheer and throw flower petals and rice. (they hadn’t quite grasped the timing)

And this is all Klaus wants for his children, for them to be happy.

Klaus lets go of Vanessa’s hand, passes her on to Mickey to take care of each other, and goes to hold onto Dave instead.

His baby girl….His little baby girl.

++

September 17, 2007 New York

Klaus had planned to spend today like he had spent the last monumental day in his previous life: pacing anxiously around the house until Dave finally stopped him.

He had woken up far before his alarm went off, wandered aimlessly through the house, and not eaten a single thing all day.

The plus side, at least, is that Dave doesn’t have to worry about either of them changing their minds and running to the rescue.

Neither of them would make it to London in time.

It’s four o’clock, Klaus has abandoned his knitting in favor of staring morosely at the wall while Dave ruins every pair of dress shirts he has by trying to iron them.

The mission alarm siren has likely already rung, but it isn’t any use.

Diego moved out two weeks ago. Allison had snuck out of the house to audition for a movie that would hear a rumor she was perfect for the role and they had to fly her to LA immediately. Klaus has helped her sneak out and then gone to get high. Vanya had been playing violin.

There is only Ben and Luther to send out. Ben so tired and aching. Luther so proud and stubborn.

He doesn’t know what happens next. Doesn’t know what happens on that mission for it to end so horribly. Only knows that at seven o’clock Klaus will fall face first onto his bed when he comes home and at two his brother will be standing dead over his bed.

Klaus had screamed so loud and for so long that his throat had torn. That mom had had to sedate him. 

Klaus doesn’t know what time his brother died.

The phone rings.

Dave curses colorfully in the bedroom and drops the iron.

Klaus moves mechanically to the phone and answers it.

“Hello?”

“Klaus?” It’s Mickey. That’s strange, they usually don’t call til Wednesday. “Klaus it’s time!”

No that can’t be right. Klaus doesn’t know the time he died.

“Klaus? Mr. Katz? Hello? Are you there? The baby! It’s coming now!”

That snaps Klaus out of his daze real quick.

“What do you mean the baby’s coming now!?” he shrieks.

In the other room the iron drops back to the floor and then Dave’s thundering feet come down the hallway.

“The baby’s coming now?” he yelps, and then starts gathering up their things.

“Apparently!” Mickey laughs, sounding hysterical and happy all at once, “We’re at the hospital now, doc’s on his way and she should be ready to push by the time he gets here.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we can!” he tells his son-in-law, “Don’t have my grandchild without me!”

He hangs up and wheels for the door, hoping Dave has everything they need.

Today… He was having a grandchild today.

A month early but well, that’s Klaus’ genes working and he’s always been unpredictable.

“Dave!” he shouts when he gets down the front porch ramp and to the car, “Come on baby I am not missing my daughter giving birth!”

A few hours later Klaus holds his granddaughter, Ella, tight in his arms while Vanessa rests in her hospital bed and Dave and Mickey worry over her.

She’s beautiful. Perfect.

Klaus looks up at the clock on the wall.

Ten o’clock. He still doesn’t know if Ben is dead yet.

Ella wiggles in his arms, yawns.

Klaus decides its best to focus on brighter things.

He’ll see his brother again someday.

++  
October 1, 2008, Woodstock, NY

Klaus is knitting on the couch when he hears the front door open.

“Poppy? Are you home?” Benji calls out

“In here Babyboy.” He frowns at his needles, counting quickly and surmising that he absolutely added two stitches accidentally. Oh well. A problem for tomorrow him. He throws it all on the coffee table.

Benji rounds the corner and throws himself dramatically into the spot beside his dad. Klaus would comment on it but that would leave him open to being made fun of for his own dramatic tendencies.

“Where’s dad?” Benji asks, scooting closer so he can snuggle up into Klaus’ side and lay his head on his shoulder. 

Klaus will never get over the fact that his little boy continues to snuggle him even as an adult. Never. He wraps his arms around his son and swings his good leg up into his son’s lap, octopus holding him. Benji doesn’t protest.

“Dad’s helping your sister with some home repairs today. And I- alas- was abandoned!” he sniffles

Benji snorts, and he looks just like Dave when he does that, from the scrunch of his eyebrows to the tilt of his mouth.

“Translation: Dad didn’t want you getting in the way.”

Klaus gasps. “How dare you! You are my son! My shining light! How could you ever take your father’s side in this?”

Benji dissolves into snickers, burying his face in Klaus’ shoulder.

Then he falls quiet. His grip on Klaus gets tighter.

Klaus lets him sit like that for a minute, knowing he needs his time.

After twenty-six years he knows exactly how to read his kid.

“Do you wanna tell me what’s going on?” he asks quietly, presses a kiss to Benji’s hair.

A half dozen ghosts linger in the corners of the room, but only Jameson is standing over them, frowning. He’s been following Benji around since the kid was four, his guardian ghost that always looked after him and reported the really big things to Klaus.

Klaus raises one eyebrow at him and Jameson nods.

Serious indeed.

Benji doesn’t take his face out of Klaus’ shoulder, just mumbles quietly, “I got a job offer this week.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?” he asks, petting one hand slowly up and down his baby’s spine.

Ben is quiet again for another long minute. “It’s in Georgia. At uh.. Saint Jude. You know the-“

“Children’s research hospital. That’s great Benji. Are we… not excited about this?”

“I am!” he insists, sitting up quickly, then deflates, “I am but… It’s so far away.”

Klaus smiles, feels warm all over, “Benjamin…”

“I don’t want to leave you and dad. Or Nessa and the baby. What if you there’s an emergency? What if you need me and I can’t make it in time because I’m in another state and-“

Klaus sits up quickly and puts his hands on Benji’s shoulders, “Hey, hey it’s ok. Deep breaths kiddo, come on. Breathe. It’s ok. Don’t worry about dad and me or Ness. What do you want to do?”

Benji is quiet for a long minute, chewing on his bottom lip, “I…I wanna go. I really wanna go. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, to help people. This is…. It’s my dream poppy.”

“I know kiddo. And that is why you are going to take it.”

“But-“

“But nothing. Your dad and I will be ok. I mean, I know we’re getting old but I don’t think we’re that old yet are we?”

His son laughs, eyes wet, “I mean, dad does need reading glasses now.”

“And he looks damn fine in them.” He says appreciatively. Benji gags just like he did when he was little every time they kissed in front of him. “I love you Benny-boy. And I want you to do what makes you happy.”

Benji’s arms wrap back around his waist and his face goes back into Klaus’ neck.

“I love you too poppy.” He mutters.

This conversation isn’t over. There’s still the logistics of moving and the packing and dealing with the absolute depression Klaus knows he’s going to have once Benji’s gone.

But right now Klaus just holds his son tight, winks at Jameson’s thumbs up, and lets all of that be a problem for tomorrow.

++

June 2016, Woodstock, NY

It’s Saturday and Klaus is so goddamn tired.

Maybe he really is getting old.

Apparently a weekend with the grandkids is more than enough to tucker him out nowadays.

“Pappy!” Sarah yells as she lays on the floor with one arm under the couch, “Mazie won’t let me pet her!”

Klaus raises one eyebrow at her, “Well if Mazie doesn’t want you to pet her should you?”

The four-year old’s face puffs up as she sits back up and crosses her arms. “No.” she grumps, looking very unhappy about this.

Mazie takes the opportunity of not being watched to skitter out from under the couch and towards their bedroom, likely towards the high shelf of Klaus and Dave’s closet out of reach of small children. Molly is fast asleep on the front porch, happily not being bothered while Anna plays fetch with Crystal the Australian hound who has far too much energy for the two old-timers she lives with.

(You know, Klaus is starting to think he and Dave are the beginning of that pet cemetery book Ben read to him in rehab once, with the number of cats, dogs, gerbils, chickens, and fish they have buried out back of the hen house.)

Dave leans down to press a kiss to Klaus’ temple and simultaneously press MJ into his lap. Klaus’ arms wrap on instinct around the infant and hold tight as he looks up at his husband.

“Who wants lunch?” his husband asks and Sarah abandons her pouting to go grab onto Dave’s leg and sit on top of his feet, giggling madly with each dramatic swing of his leg.

“Me! Me! I want a grilled cheese!” she yells

Ella pokes her head in the door, Crystal following happily at her heels, “Grandpa can we play a game!” she asks

“After lunch sweetpea. Now come on,” he hoists Sarah up onto the counter and then sets Ella beside her, “You two can watch Grandpa make the best grilled chesses in the history of the world.”

They both giggle. MJ babbles nonsensically and chews on the edge of Klaus’ shirt as they wheel closer.

“Oh he isn’t lying babygirls.” Klaus nods seriously, “Your Grandpa’s grilled cheeses are magical. But only if you eat every. Last. Bite.”

Both of their eyes are wide with wonder and the nod eagerly.

“I’ll eat it all!” Ella insists

“Me too!” Sarah agrees.

Dave leans down to kiss Klaus on the lips and whisper, “And what exactly are these magical abilities baby?”

Klaus grins, “Magic secret. Can’t tell you.”

Dave snorts, rolls his eyes, and goes about getting out ingredients.

Klaus hoists MJ up into the air and beams, “And we need to get Junior here some lunch too don’t we? Yes we do. We do.” He coos, and MJ gurgles his happiness.

When he looks up Dave is watching him with that same love-struck smile he had forty-seven years ago in ‘Nam. 

Fuck Klaus is old and sappy. He loves it.

But at least for a man pushing 80 he’s still damn fine.

“I say we have a little spa day after lunch.” He decides, using his most posh voice. The girls giggle. “A little manicure, some face masks, those little cucumber eye things.” He drops the voice, “Davey what are those for exactly?”

Dave shrugs, “You’d know more than me sunshine.” 

“I’ll do spa day with you Pappy!” Ella volunteers

“Me too!” Sarah nods

“Muh!” MJ declares loudly

“Ooh, baby wants to paint his nails too? Yes we’ll start you defying gender roles early. Never too young to dismantle the patriarchy are we ladies?”

“No sir!” they chorus, Ella having heard enough of this by now to understand and Sarah at the very least aware of the pattern.

Dave snorts, shaking his head fondly, “Just make sure he doesn’t eat any. We don’t wanna explain to Nessie why we had to take her baby to the ER for poisoning.”

Klaus groans, “She turned out fine didn’t she? And we know all the crap she put in her mouth.”

“Language!” Ella shouts before Dave can. He high fives her. “You have to put a quarter in the swear jar Pappy, it’s the rule.” 

Klaus pouts at both of them and rolls over to the kitchen counter where his son-in-law had placed the stupid glass jar labelled condescendingly ‘Pappy’s swear jar’. He digs a crumpled dollar bill out of his pocket.

“Your dad’s shitty jar won’t stop me. This is damn stupid and a load of crap.”

There. No one carries quarters anymore. Might as well make it even.

The girls giggle madly while Dave groans.

“Baby….”

Klaus looks back to MJ and tell him in his baby voice, “Tell Grandpa there’s more dollars in my pocket. Yes there are. Say no Davey, you can’t stop me.”

“I’m so gonna get a new barbie this week.” Ella grins, eyeing the half full jar of dollar bills.

“And my hot wheel!” Sarah pulls on her sleeve, “Will we have enough for my hot wheel too?”

Dave snorts, “Kid with the way your Pappy curses you’ll have enough for two hot wheels.”

Klaus sticks his tongue out.

Dave plates up the girls’ food and sets them at the table. Klaus gets MJ in his bib and his high chair and sets a bowl of mashed grossness out before him.

They watch the kids eat for a second before Dave leans himself over the back of Klaus’ chair, wrapping his arms around him. Klaus reaches up to pet his hair, turning his head for a quick peck.

“I love you.” He says softly

Dave kisses him again, harder, exactly the same way he’s been kissing him since they were twenty-something.

“I love you too.” Dave whispers, smiling against his lips like it’s the first time all over again.

Maybe they should get married again, for real this time. It’s been legal for a year now and the hype has probably died down enough that planning it should be easy.

“Marry me?” he asks, linking his fingers with Dave’s and feeling their rings clink together.

Dave’s smile turns up a thousand watts and he laughs, and like this Klaus can hardly even see the age.

“Always sunshine.”

Klaus kisses him again, and wonders how he ever got so lucky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This got.... so long. Comparatively ch 1 was like, 14 pages. ch 2 is like....30. Woops. Well hopefully the final chapter will be out by new years and that will have the delicious angst that I love so much. Look forward to that.


	3. Fixing what we left behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's 2019, the apocalypse is nigh, and Klaus has to pick up the pieces of the future he left behind, but now he's not alone.

March 2019, New York NY

The day before Reginald Hargreeves is set to die, Klaus and Dave pack up the car and head into the city to check into the very nice hotel they’d booked eight months ago when they’d started planning this.

Vanessa and Benji meet them there- Mickey and grandkids in tow- because despite Klaus’ actual, physical, on-the-knee begging for them to stay out of it, his kids weren’t just gonna sit idly by while Klaus saved the world.

“You’re like, ninety years old Poppy.” Vanessa tells him while tucking a gun that Klaus is absolutely not going to ask about into the back of her jeans. Also not going to tell Dave about that, he’ll have another heart attack.

“I’m only eighty.” He insists, shifting in his wheelchair to look down on the city below them. He can’t see the Academy from here, but he can feel his younger self, his suppressed power straining not too far away.

Dave comes back into the room with Sarah on one shoulder and Ella under the other arm, “Are you sure I can’t punch your father once before he dies? Just once.” 

Klaus snorts, then rolls forward and leans up, puckering his lips. Dave leans down instantly and kisses him. “I love you Dave-y, and the fact that you want to sucker punch the old bastard makes me so damn horny.”

“Klaus!” Mickey yelps at the same instant both Vanessa and Benji gag. 

Dave just throws his head back on a laugh and tosses both grandkids onto the big hotel bed before leaning down to scoop Klaus up out of his chair and into a bridal carry, “Sorry kids, Poppy and I are gonna be busy for the next forty minutes.” And starts marching determinedly towards the room across the hall.

“Make that an hour!” Klaus calls over Dave’s shoulder, and waves as his kids all fake retch once more. 

An hour and a half later the family finally gets to work.

They can’t interfere directly yet, Klaus won’t risk changing the timeline and not meeting Dave, so they have to be subtle about this. For Klaus, being subtle means sitting in the backseat of their rental van and staring down the gates of their childhood home and drinking in the sight of his siblings that he hasn’t seen in fifty years.

Sure, he’s seen bits of them. Allison up on the big screen every time a new movie came out. Vanya’s face on the cover of her book. A hundred-thousand magazine articles talking about the Umbrella Academy. But this is the first time he’s seen any of them in person- even from a distance- since he travelled back in time.

God he missed them.

They come in numerical order.

Luther shuffles in first, a few short hours before the news has broken to the rest of the world, shoulders too big in a way Klaus is only just now noticing. Something off about him, something wrong with the shape of his body.

Diego follows less than an hour after the news broadcast, which plays over the radio of the car. He slinks in quietly, more like a thief breaking into the house than a man returning to his childhood home. (Home being a loose term here.)

Allison is next, bright and early as the sun starts to rise. She must have caught the first flight out of LA. Her posture is perfect, back straight, head up, her hair perfectly styled. But she hesitates on the front stoop, staring at the door for a long minute before she finally reaches out to touch the handle.

The Klaus of this time is next, and Klaus (him, Klaus) holds his breath as he watches his younger self stumble up the sidewalk with the ghostly specter of Ben trailing behind him. They don’t go through the front door, instead swinging around the side of the building to head straight for the kitchen where Mom is most likely cooking.

(But Ben stops, looking around the street curiously, most likely feeling the pull of Klaus’ power, that beacon to the dead, coming from a new direction)

Vanya arrives early in the afternoon, pulling up in a cab and looking just as small and anxious as Klaus remembers her being. It’s hard to imagine that she’s going to end the world in a week.

Klaus does not see Five enter or leave, but he does see the swirling vortex of energy on the other side of the building and knows he’s arrived. 

All Seven members of the Umbrella Academy together again- plus the older version of one of them sitting in a van outside.

Klaus pats Dave on the shoulder and his husband puts the van into drive and they’re off. They have work to do.

None of the Umbrella Academy can see Klaus until after the younger version of him has gone back in time, and the younger version of him can absolutely not see Dave before he goes off to Vietnam. 

Mostly, this means Klaus sits in the hotel room with his cellphone and the grandkids while everyone else does all the heavy lifting.

Vanessa and Dave keep an eye on Vanya, his daughter taking violin lessons from his little sister while Dave keeps an eye on her from a distance.

Benji keeps an eye on younger Klaus, and sends Klaus himself various texts throughout the day along the lines of ‘You’re a hot mess’ ‘How are you still alive’ and ‘Why the fuck did you eat that gum off the floor?’

Mickey takes the much more difficult job of keeping an eye on the rest of the Academy, who are all in various locations and nearly impossible to track down. He doesn’t even attempt to keep tabs on Five, which absolutely no one can blame him for.

Klaus waits and listens to his current family watching over his previous family, and he tries to entertain the kiddos to distract himself from what he knows is coming.

See, Dave had wanted to go with Benji, on THE NIGHT. Had wanted to be there because he’d wanted stop it, to save a younger, more vulnerable Klaus on the edge of breaking apart from the pain he would endure. From scars that Dave would kiss to this day, from nightmares that would wake him for decades to come. But it had to happen. Klaus had to be tortured to the edge of his breaking point and then stumble through time to find the happiness he never would have found here.

So Dave goes with Vanessa to finally bring Vanya in with them, and Benji sits in the parking lot of a motel and texts Klaus about how much he loves him. And Klaus waits.

And finally, fifty years later, Klaus and Ben are reunited.

Ben stands in the hotel room, looking around frantically, afraid and desperate and searching for the source of the beacon he has been following since he died at seventeen. 

It’s good to see his brother again, to drink in the sight of him that he had never appreciated enough in his past. Ben had aged alongside Klaus, and neither of them had ever figured out why, but Klaus is so very glad for not having to stare at the seventeen year old version of his brother right now.

“Ben.” He calls, and his voice cracks on fifty years of missing the one sibling that had ever cared whether he lived or died.

And Ben looks at him, not recognizing the stranger that has called his name, that can see him somehow, when no one besides Klaus has seen him for so long. Klaus knows what he looks like, an old frail man in a wheelchair, his curls gone silvery white. He smiles at his brother and bares one boney wrist, a faded black umbrella tattoo alongside an equally faded Goodbye.

Ben sucks in a breath he doesn’t need, eyes widening as they take in every inch of him, “Klaus?” he asks, voice so incredibly small like it hasn’t been since they were seven and Ben had crawled into his bed every night.

“Hey there bro.” he holds out his other hand, Hello, lips quivering as tears threaten to choke him, “I missed you.”

Ben just stands there and stares at him. “Klaus… I… What happened…. You’re…”

Klaus smiles, feels his power crackle at his fingertips as they glow blue and Ben lights up. “You gonna come give me a hug or not?” he asks

Ben gasps, stares at his hands, and then bolts forward to throw himself into Klaus’ lap and sob into his neck.

“I don’t understand.” He cries, clinging desperately to Klaus like he had when they were little.

Klaus tells him quietly about the briefcase being a time machine that took him back to the Vietnam war.

“Vietnam?” Ben asks, “You fought in a fucking war Klaus!” his hands hover over Klaus’ missing leg, “How are you so… calm?”

Klaus smiles softly and pets his brother’s hair, “It was a long time ago for me Benny-boy. Fifty years.”

Ben makes another wounded noise, curling closer to Klaus, “Why didn’t you come back?”

“Briefcase broke.” He says simply, looking over to the beds at the sound of rustling sheets.

“Pappy?” Ella asks, sitting up slowly and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, “What’s going on? Is momma back?”

Ben stares wide-eyed at the little girl, and the two other slumbering children in the big bed beside her.

“Not yet gumdrop, go back to sleep.” Klaus tells her, and she nods, not even noticing the specter in the room as she drops back down and falls instantly asleep.

Ben continues to stare, and Klaus leans his chin on his brother’s shoulder to look at the kids with him, “Ben, those are my grandkids. Ella, Sarah, and Michael Jr.”

“You have grandkids?” Ben wonders aloud, sounding amazed, “Klaus…

“Ben, hey, look at me.” Ben turns to look at him and Klaus cups his cheeks in both hands, smiling, “Getting stuck in the past is the best thing that has ever happened to me, do you hear me? I met the love of my life, I’ve been sober for over forty years now, I have two beautiful children that I can’t wait for you to meet. I have a home, a real home, and a real family. So don’t be sad ok, it wasn’t bad, it’s been worth every second in that motel room.”

Ben’s face shines with tears and he leans forward again to bury his face in Klaus’ neck and just cry.

Klaus holds him, his brother, a luxury he’d never had in the twelve years after Ben’s death. Ben hasn’t touched anyone since he died, so Klaus will let him cling to him for as long as he needs.

++

The family abandon their stalking tasks in favor of having breakfast the next morning, room service having delivered a veritable feast to one of their rooms, and Ben gets to meet the family while they wait for Vanya to arrive for a platonic lunch date/violin lesson with Vanessa.

Ben can’t stop staring wide-eyed at Benji, who is trying to shove as many eggs into his mouth as possible before Vanessa can drown them in syrup. 

“You named your son after me…” he whispers, eyes wide and wet

Klaus scoffs, pressing the millionth kiss to his forehead in the last hour, “Of course I did, you’re my brother and I love you. And I wasn’t going to name him after Luther.”

Ben beams, leaning into the kiss and nuzzling Klaus’ hair affectionately like he used to when they were little. Then he sobers, frowns, “What happens next?” he asks

“Well next, we help Vanya get rid of her shitty boyfriend, learn about her powers, get her some good love and care and a spa day, and then you come and live with me on the farm so that I can have all my favorite people together.”

Ben raises one eyebrow at him, “That was both smart and sappy. When did you become smart and sappy?”

“God somewhere around forty, I think. You should see Dave though, he’s way more sappy.”

“Don’t you lie to your brother sweetheart!” Dave looks up from where he’s squinting at the TV to reprimand him

“Damn you and your super hearing!” Klaus says sweetly, blowing a kiss for good measure.

“Pappy!” Michael hisses at the same time Ella sing-songs, “Poppy said a swear word!”

Ben laughs again, this time louder and brighter. Klaus is sure he hasn’t seen his brother laugh like this since they were twelve.

Klaus squeezes Ben closer, listening to his laugh, listening to his family laugh and groan around them.

They’ll still need to deal with Vanya, with the apocalypse, with Five and the Commission and everything else shitty that Klaus had accidentally left behind decades ago. 

But right now he just relishes all of his favorite people being together at last.

++

Vanya arrives a little late at 10:07, clearly having run all the way up the street and to the elevator of the hotel.

Klaus has not seen his sister since he left the Academy, had only spoken to her a handful of times while he was in rehab (she sent the best care packages) or very, very high.

Klaus had honestly forgotten what his sister had looked like. She’s so much smaller than he remembers. Had her hair always been that messy? He’s really digging her lesbian chic. Has she always been this bright?

She stands in the doorway of the hotel room and stares at Vanessa and Dave, there to greet here, and then peers behind them at Benji and Mickey and the grandkids and Klaus.

“Uh…” she says, voice as soft and timid as Klaus remembers it, “Am I early? I can come back if you need some time to get ready Vanessa.”

Vanessa steps back, smiling, “No we’re good. Actually, there’s a few people here who need to talk to you.”

Vanya steps hesitantly into the room, the door closing behind her. Klaus lets his hands flare blue and brings Ben into the world next to him, glowing softly.

Vanya’s eyes snap to him and she gasps, dropping her violin case to the floor with a crash as she moves forward quickly to wrap her arms around Ben and hold him tight.

“Ben?” she sobs into his chest, “Is that…. Is it really you?”

“In the flesh.” He says, because he’s always had a terrible sense of humor

“But… how?”

Klaus smiles at her, waving his ‘Hello’ hand at her. Her gaze snaps to him, eyes furrowing as she looks him over. He sighs dramatically, “I can’t believe you don’t recognize me, I think I’m still just as good looking as I was before.”

Vanya, perhaps recognizing his voice or his speech patterns or the tattoos or anything, gasps again, eyes near bugging out of her skull and knees wobbling like she might fall over. “Klaus?”

Ben- who has adjusted marvelously quickly to this whole ‘elderly’ thing- knocks his hip into Klaus’ shoulder, “You did lose a lot of hair.” He teases

Klaus gasps in horror, “Blasphemy! I have not lost a single hair! Not one! Tell him Davey!”

Dave rolls his eyes, shuffling closer to put both hands on Klaus’ shoulders, “Jokes aside sweetheart, I think your sister is having a panic attack.”

Klaus looks back to Vanya, whose breath is coming much faster.

“Oh shit! Vanya, come on sweetheart, it’s ok. Come on, breath with me now, in…. and out…. Just like that, good Vanya. See, it’s all ok. Just a little time travel that’s all. And look at me, all sober and married and shit.”

“Pappy said a bad word!” Sarah reports, Mickey shushes her valiantly

Vanya’s panic attack seems to have been stopped by sheer shock. “Married?” she squeaks out, looking to Dave who smiles pleasantly.

“Nice to finally meet you Vanya, I’ve heard a lot about you.” She shakes his hand on autopilot, her eyes darting to the others.

Vanessa smiles wryly, “Nice to officially meet you Aunt Vanya, good to see I was named after the talented sibling.” She elbows her brother, “And this is my brother Benji.”

Vanya’s eyes somehow get even wider, “You had kids?” she wonders aloud, looking back to Klaus, “And… And you named one after me?”

Klaus beams, “Course. Davey lost a few bets so I got three out of four naming privileges. He wasted his one shot on ‘Jameson’ of all things.”

“Watch it Hargreeves.” Jameson warns, poking his head in through the wall and making Ben- the only other person who can see him- jump near out of his skin. 

“Anyways,” Klaus continues, waving one hand and sending Jameson out of the room “I decided to use mine on my three favorite siblings.”

“Wait three?” Ben asks, looking at Vanessa thoughtfully. Benjamin Jameson and what? Vanessa…. Allison?

She rolls her eyes, “My middle name’s Dianna.”

Vanya lets out a bark of surprise, “Diego is gonna be pissed.” She whispers, amazed, but she’s smiling finally, looking so much brighter than Klaus can ever remember.

“Oh right!” he says, finally remembering why they’re even here in the first place, “Vanya, sweet sister mine, we need to talk about your powers.”

“I don’t have any powers.” She says immediately, like it’s a reflex, and then her eyebrows furrow when Klaus just stares at her, “Do I?”

“I do believe we all heard a very convincing rumor to the contrary.”

Vanya sucks in a deep breath, stumbling a step, only Benji being so close to her side keeps her from falling right on over. He steadies her enough to lead her over to the nearest bed, setting her down gently.

When she looks up again she’s shaking, eyes impossibly wider and filled with tears, “I have powers?” she whispers out, then more firmly, “I have powers.”

“There we go,” Klaus grins, “You’re taking this much better than I thought you would honestly- not that I doubted you!” he hurriedly explains, when both Ben and Dave elbow him harshly and lovingly, “Just that from what I’ve learned your powers are a teeney-tiny bit explosive.”

Vanya stares wide-eyed at her hands, flexing each one slowly. She looks up at Klaus, “I… I stopped taking my pills yesterday. I forgot to refill the prescription.” She says, “Ever since then I’ve… There’s been this weird feeling like… I can’t explain it but… I feel so different.”

“Well, let’s correct one thing first,” Klaus starts, “You didn’t forget the prescription, your current uh, boyfriend is he, anyways, he stole them from your apartment and dumped them.”

“Leonard did? But… But why?”

Benji is frowning, “Could be for the same reason he dug around in a dumpster to steal that notebook Poppy threw away. Young Poppy, I mean. Klaus? What do we call you pre-time travel?”

Klaus shrugs, then frowns, “Wait, what notebook that I threw away?”

Ben is nodding now, “You found Dad’s notebook in his office. You know, the big red one.” Both Klaus and Vanya shudder at the memory of it, “You threw it out to sell the box for drug money.”

“That does sound like me, yes.”

“But why?” Vanya asks again, “What does he get out of, I don’t know, making me remember I have powers?”

“Don’t know, don’t care, doesn’t matter!” Klaus chirps, clapping his hands sharply to get everyone’s attention once more, “Vanya, sweet sister mine, I think you are long overdue for a tour of the farm.”

Vanya blinks at him. Dave snorts, “Nice segue sweetheart.” 

Klaus blows him a kiss and then rolls forward to take both of Vanya’s hands in his, “You have your recital at the end of the week right? Well, until then you are going to be staying at Casa de Katz getting all the love and attention daddy dearest sorely deprived you of growing up. Davey, are we packed yet?”

“Packed and ready. We can stop by your place on the way to grab some things.” He tells Vanya, “We’ve already got the guest room set up for you.” He ushers her to her feet, guiding her towards the door as the kids start grabbing bags and Klaus grins at his handiwork, “You aren’t by any chance allergic to cats are you? Klaus couldn’t remember and we have this little monster right now who will wake you up by trying to suffocate you so-“ they’re out of the room.

Klaus stretches his arms up over his head and looks to Ben, “So, how long do you think it’ll take for the others to realize she and I are gone?”

Ben shrugs, “I give it til the day of Five’s apocalypse and then another week until they find us. Do you have goats?”

Klaus pouts, starts rolling out into the hallway to shout, “Hey Davey, Ben’s curious about the goats!”

Dave doesn’t look away from Vanya, just hollers back, “When you grow another leg to help take care of them you can get your goats baby.”

Klaus gestures dramatically to his husband, “We do have chickens.”

“Cool.”

It’s going to be a long car ride, they’ll still need to figure out how the hell they’re going to comfortably fit everyone in their house and around the dining room table, but Klaus can’t stop smiling.

Look at him, stopping the end of the world. He was wasted as a lookout.

++

Vanya takes to farm life very well. She enjoys the peace and quiet of being absolutely nowhere near civilization, especially once her powers begin to properly manifest and shit starts to go bananas. 

Dave teaches her how to care for the chickens and the pets, how to get the back door to latch properly when it’s windy, how to bake a real apple pie. Klaus teaches her how to breathe deep and slow to keep the panic from overwhelming her, to focus on the bright, happy things she has now, rather than the horrible aching of her past, how to stretch out with her powers until they blossom. 

She keeps up the violin lessons with Vanessa, and starts clumsily learning the piano alongside Ella. She reads aloud from big book for MJ and uses her burgeoning powers to send hot wheel cars flying across the room for Sarah’s amusement. Benji lets her hide out in his room when the world is too loud, too much, and plays music off an old record player until everything is calm again. Mickey catches her up on the last decade or so of family gossip until she’s crying with laughter.

Ben curls up in Klaus’ lap most days, or wanders around the yard feeling the grass and the wind and the sunshine with his new corporeal body. He smiles, he and Vanya both do, so much more than Klaus can ever remember.

Dave kisses his forehead on April second, after the world does not, after they’d watched Vanya’s recital and brought her home again, after the family had eaten celebratory dinner and passed out in the living room watching Lion King, after everything.

“I’m glad I met you Klaus.” He whispers, kisses him again on the lips.

Klaus smiles. It took him nearly thirty years of drowning himself in alcohol and drugs, of dying in back alleys and dirty beds, of crying and screaming and utter misery and pain and death, but he’d found happiness. He’d found Dave.

“I love you.” He tells his husband, gets yet another kiss.

Eventually, the others will find them. Five will break down, finally, after decades spent holding it all together. Luther will be lost, aimless, as he unlearns the truth of his world that is crumbling. Allison and Diego will be filled with guilt over the two siblings they had not even known they were failing finding peace without them.

It doesn’t matter. The farm may be small but there’s room enough for all of them, for Klaus’ family. He’ll help them find their feet again.

He’s the oldest now, he has to look out for his lost little siblings.

Thirteen years later, at 93 years old, Klaus Katz will lay in his bed, his husband holding his hand beside him, his children asleep in chairs clustered close to his bedside, his much, much younger siblings and his grandkids all clustered in the living room arguing over pizza toppings.

He’ll smile, and stare at Dave’s face as he naps.

He wouldn’t change a second of his life, not for this, not for anything.

“Come on Klaus.” Ben whispers gently, reaching out his hand for him, “It’s time.”

He leans over to kiss Dave one last time, looks at his beautiful, brilliant, wonderful children one last time, listens to his family bicker lovingly and only slightly aggressively one last time.

Then he closes his eyes and follows Ben off into that great beyond.

What a wonderful life he has lived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to everyone who liked this story, it's been so much fun to write and Season 2 came out at just the right time to inspire me to finish it.
> 
> I hope this is a satisfying enough ending. Let me know if you want to see the other siblings' reactions to old Klaus, i almost wrote them but decided to leave it out but i wouldn't mind going back and hashing that out. Probably lots of angst tho.


End file.
